Entries categorized "Media"

Paul Waldman at The American Prospect has an insightful look at the Religious Liberty Campaign of the far-right launched in 2012. This is not a recent home-grown campaign coooked up at the Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) as our local media would have you believe. CAP is just one of many far-right religious organizations in a network of far-right religious organizations that is quite literally seeking to redefine the meaning of the First Amendment. Platinum-Level Citizenship:

[C]onservative Christians have mounted a little war of their own, fought in the courts and state legislatures. The enemies include not just the Obama administration but gay people, women who want control of their own bodies, and an evolving modern morality that has left them behind.

In the process, they have made a rather spectacular claim, though not explicitly. What they seek is nothing short of a different definition of American citizenship granted only to highly religious people, and highly religious Christians in particular. They are demanding that our laws stake out for them a kind of Citizenship Platinum, allowing them an exemption from any law or obligation they'd prefer to disregard.They would refashion the First Amendment in their image.

There are a couple of legal analyses out today that attempt to make the point that SB 1062, the Religious Bigotry bill, is just not that big a deal. Wrong.

Howard Fischer has a report captioned in the Arizona Daily Star, Outcry over Arizona's SB 1062 overshadows bill's limited power. Howie relies on former ASU Law Professor Paul Bender, who comments “My summary is: It means almost nothing.”"[T]he main thing people miss is, there’s no right of action against a bigot in the first place,” Bender said. “The bigot doesn’t need this.”

Howie cites the "three part test" contained in SB 1062:

The law provides a three-part test that someone seeking to use the shield would have to establish in court.

First, the person’s action or refusal to act “is motivated by a religious belief.” Second, that belief must be “sincerely held.”

And third, there would need to be proof that being forced to do something “substantially burdens the exercise of the person’s religious beliefs.”

It is that last provision that prevents SB 1062 from being a catch-all for any religious claim.

But Howie never asks the all important question: "How has this three part test been used in real world practical application?" The only reporter today to ask the correct question is Megan Finnerty at the Arizona Republic (congrats Megan!) Can courts measure sincerity of faith?:

Our most deeply held convictions cannot be proved or disproved — the love we have for our children, the faith we have in our God, the respect we have for our parents — but SB 1062 would create an opportunity for a judge or a jury to ascertain and measure them.

Religious and legal experts disagree whether a judge or jury could know if a belief was sincere. They also don’t agree on what could be considered proof of such a belief. Words and actions only go so far.

About 250 cases have been brought since the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act was put in place 20 years ago. Since then, 26 states have passed similar laws.

Judges have believed those who asserted a religious belief essentially because they said they held it, said Phoenix attorney Joe La Rue of the Christian legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom, which co-wrote SB 1062.

“The courts know how to figure this out; they’ve done it,” La Rue said. “The court generally takes your word for it. You don’t presume a person is lying. You take them at their word unless the belief is so preposterous or so over the top that you couldn’t.”

The Arizona Daily Star must be feeling left out today, but don't worry, I haven't forgotten about them.

Instead of publishing warmed-over press releases from the Martha McSally campaign as "news," CD-2 candidate Martha McSally headlines Lincoln Day dinner in Hawaii, maybe the Star should have hired a political reporter to send down to Cochise County to cover the Lincoln Day dinner in closer proximity to Tucson. What, the Star can't afford a stipend for gas and some food? Have Jim Click chip in.

FORT HUACHUCA — Some words spoken more than 150 years ago are still a battle cry for Republicans.

For the GOP today the fight to ensure the will of the people is heard is what the Republican party stands for, Casey Jones, the chairman of the Cochise County Republican Committee, said at the formal opening of the annual Abraham Lincoln Day Dinner.

Quoting Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, the final 14 words of the speech should be the motto of the Republican Party, Jones said.

Those words: “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” remain the clarion call of the party, the county chairman said. “We are in a grand battle to save our nation,” Jones said, noting two speakers at the dinner — U.S. Rep. David Schweikert and Arizona’s Chairman of the Republican Party Robert Graham — will specifically address the issues facing the party in this year’s federal, state and local elections.

I warned you about this bill earlier this month: SCR 1003 (.pdf) would refer a legislative ballot measure to the ballot that requires "the reauthorization of statewide initiative and referendum measures that create funds for public monies, dedicate public monies to a specific purpose or otherwise effect state General Fund (GF) revenues or expenditures."

Note that this reauthorizaton is not for all citizens initiative and referendum measures, just the ones the legislature does not like -- the ones that require the legislature to spend money on priorites decided by the voters, like heath care and education. This is the teabaggers' "I hate the Voter Protection Act" (Prop. 105 -1998) measure to undermine Prop. 105. The reauthorization applies retroactively to all specified statewide initiative and referendum measures approved on or after November 3, 1998.

The teabaggers want the opportunity to revisit and to reverse the laws that the citizens of Arizona enacted as a super-legislature exercising the powers reserved to the citizens under the Arizona Constitution and exercising their constitutional right to citizen initiative and referendum. This reauthorization provision would give opponents a second bite at the apple after seven (7) years. It would invite a perpetual campaign that seeks to undermine the legitimacy of laws enacted by the voters. The teabaggers are demonstrating their utter disdain for your constitutional rights and for democracy.

Sure 'nuf, here is the "editorial board" of the Arizona Republic arguing in favor of wage theft from retirees -- keep in mind this is deferred compensation that these employees bargained for in good faith and have earned by performing their end of the bargain. They are entitled to receive payment in exchange for their performance. Reform pensions or lose them:

The Arizona Supreme Court just handed an enormous past-due bill to taxpayers.

The state Legislature’s attempt in 2011 to rein in the costs of poorly performing pension plans is unconstitutional, according to the justices. The Arizona constitution forbids reducing public-pension benefits, which effectively means that no matter how high the costs go, taxpayers simply will have to find a way to pay them.

As a result, the pension board will have to pay out $7.9 million to bring the tab current for beneficiaries of the Elected Officials’ Retirement Plan, a part of the state’s worst performing pension trust, the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System.

The ruling also applies to other beneficiaries of the PSPRS whose benefits were temporarily curtailed. That adds another $32.1 million for retroactive raises. The system will set aside $335.6 million to fund cost-of-living adjustments going forward.

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The 5-0 Supreme Court decision may be perfectly rational and predictable — a constitutionally guaranteed promise made must be kept, after all. But it leaves Arizona taxpayers in a position of disturbing vulnerability, one that begs for a constitutional amendment that will allow lawmakers to make the sorts of changes the justices now say they cannot.

The Arizona Republic, formerly known as The Arizona Republican, and the mouthpiece of the establishment Republican Party in Arizona, is schizophrenic when it comes to your constitutional rights to a citizens referendum and voting.

Coliumnist E.J. Montini published Voters can suppress the suppressors: "The only way voters can guarantee it never happens again is to note of every politician who goes along with the scheme and, when those names appear next on the ballot box, suppress their re-election."

But the "editorial board" of The Republic has twice now published editorial opinions essentially telling the voters of Arizona to "go screw yourself."

State Rep. Ethan Orr (R-Tucson) appeared on MSNBC last week to discuss his vote against the Religious Bigotry bill, SB 1062. (Video below the fold).

E.Orr said "the insidiousness of this bill is that it excludes people from commerce, and if I have the power to exclude you from the commerce of society, I can exclude you from society itself." Not the strongest argument one can make, but I will take it. (I think his young son got it right).

I found this statement from E.Orr to be more interesting: "This bill is not the only voice that Arizona is speaking with, in fact it's not even the only voice in the Republican Party. I think most Arizonans and most Republicans are opposed to this bill and don't want to discriminate against people based on homosexuality."

OK, let me stop you right there, E.Orr. You were one of only three Republicans out of a total of 53 in the Arizona legislature to vote against this bill. 3/53 of the GOP caucus does not make you even a minority caucus within the GOP, it makes you "irrelevant" (as the Arizona Republic likes to refer to Democrats who have 37 seats in the Arizona legislature).

The pathetic print newspaper industry, in a desperate attempt to preserve a statutorily-mandated revenue stream that lost its justification decades ago, maliciously attacked Arizona House Rep. John Kavanagh in some of the most despicably self-serving and deceptive editorial pieces I've ever read.

Unfortunately, few members of the public likely understand what really is going on.

Let's be clear: Kavanagh and I are not exactly political chums, although I have nothing personal against him and do admire his willingness to comment here under his real name. But he's a right-wing conservative and I identify as Green. So I have no motive to shill for Rep. Kavanagh.

But I'm willing to give credit where credit is due, and John has introduced a piece of legislation, HB 2554, which is outstanding and long overdue. HB 2554 eliminates the requirement that newly formed corporations and limited liability companies publish their formation information in a print newspaper of general circulation.

The Arizona print newspaper industry collects millions in fees from business start-ups each year for printing these statutorily mandated notices. The notices appear in separate sections of numerous local newspapers. Nobody reads them. They go straight to the recycling bin or, worse yet, the landfill.

And it's been that way for decades.

It's what's referred to as a private tax.

A long time ago, when local print newspapers were the best way to disseminate this information and far, far fewer corporations were formed, most states had publication requirements.

No longer. All but four states have eliminated the publication requirement because it no longer serves any purpose. From the way the Arizona print newspaper lobby is squealing like a stuck pig, you would never guess this to be the case, but it is.

At the heart of the deception is the conflation of (a) the legitimate and necessary practice of providing online access to information about corporations and limited liability companies to the public; and (b) the completely wasteful and valueless practice of publishing information about new corporate and limited liability company formations in print. Those two practices are not naturally connected. The newspaper lobby, however, justifies the continuation of the giant revenue stream it derives from wasteful print publication on the basis of the public's need for online access.

Practically each line from the Republic either is misleading or is an outright lie, starting out with the glaring omission of the fact that the list of states retaining the publication requirement is down to four, and shrinking.

The Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) stealth candidate for governor of Arizona is the only candidate yet to take a position on the Religious Bigotry bill. Cathi Herrod from CAP is on State Treasurer Doug Ducey's campaign steering committee (he proudly displays her endorsement on his campaign web site).

Most Republican gubernatorial candidates came out in opposition to SB1062. Secretary of State Ken Bennett was one of several who said the bill was unneeded to protect rights that already have sufficient protections.

“SB 1062 is an unnecessary measure to protect a God-given right already assured by the Constitution,” Bennett said in a press statement. “I strongly support religious freedom, but divisive measures such as these distract us from the most important challenges facing Arizona — jobs and economic development.”

Grampy McCrankypants, Sen. John McCain, has a sad that the U.S. has not gone to war lately with (insert country name here) , because the man has never met a war he did not like. McCain knows nothing about foreign affairs, yet the media villagers hang on his every word as though his thoughts are worth listening to. Paul Waldman at The American Prospect dispels the media myth of John McCain in John McCain Says Ignorant, Belligerent Things; Press Swoons:

I'll admit that I know next to nothing about Ukrainian politics. And when it comes to the current crisis there, I don't have any brilliant ideas about how the United States could solve this problem, but that's partly because the United States probably can't solve this problem. My limited knowledge and lack of transformative ideas puts me on equal footing with John McCain. Yet for some reason, McCain is once again all over the news, now that the situation in Kiev[.]

What does McCain actually think we should do about Ukraine? We'll get to that in a moment. But if you had to sum up John McCain's foreign policy beliefs in a single word, that word would probably be "Grrrr!" Whatever the situation is, McCain's view is always that we should be tougher than whatever the White House is doing. This applies to both Republican and Democratic presidents. If we're already bombing somebody, McCain's answer to any challenge is that we should bomb harder. If we haven't yet commenced action but are seriously thinking about it, he thinks we should start bombing. If we're engaging in diplomacy, McCain thinks we should ditch all that talk, which is for pussies anyhow, and get "tough" with whoever it is that needs getting tough with.

That is, I promise you, the extent of the sophistication of McCain's foreign policy thinking. Despite the fact that he is regularly lauded by the reporters who have worshipped him for so long as an "expert" in foreign policy with deep "knowledge" and "experience," I have never heard him say a single thing that demonstrated any kind of understanding of any foreign country or foreign crisis beyond what you could have gleaned from watching a three-minute report on the Today show.

Our lawless legislature has lost yet another case in court, this time over the Elected Officials Retirement Plan (specifically retired judges). This is the second time in recent years that the Arizona Supreme Court has struck down as unconstitutional attempt by Tea-Publicans in the Arizona legislature to reduce benefits to retirees of public employee pension plans. I am sure the editorial board of the Arizona Republic will have a sad over this ruling.

The justices said a voter-approved section of the state constitution makes public pension plans a contractual relationship. More to the point, that provision says benefits “shall not be diminished or impaired.”

Justice Robert Brutinel, writing for the unanimous court said that language applies not just to what retired judges were getting at any one time. He said it also means lawmakers cannot tinker with already existing formulas that determine how much those benefits will increase each year.

Thursday’s ruling puts a damper on efforts by legislators to sharply restrain the obligations of the state to finance existing public pensions. But it does not bar lawmakers from setting new rules for those who have not yet become judges.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a new report on Tuesday on the impacts of raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and $9 an hour. It found that a $10.10 minimum wage, implemented by 2016, would mean higher earnings for 16.5 million workers, resulting in $31 billion more in higher earnings. It would also lift nearly 1 million people out of poverty.

* * *

“Once the increases and decreases in income for all workers are taken into account, overall real income would rise by $2 billion,” it says. The vast majority of people impacted, over 95 percent, will be impacted positively.

Tea-Publicans want Americans to continue to earn sub-poverty level wages at the hands of exploitative employers, because "Freedom!" (Some Tea-Publicans around the country have even proposed eliminating the minimum wage altogether). I would remind you that failed GOP economic policies have eliminated millions of jobs since 2000.

The Arizona Republic will never admit they were shamed into doing it by my constantly berating them for not reporting on Sean Noble and the "Kochtopus" dark money network operating in their own backyard in the state of Maricopa. But I am going to claim a small victory anyway.

State lawmakers took the first steps Tuesday to cut down on so-called “dark money’’ in political campaigns, but with no clear indication if their plan will work, or whether it’s even legal.

Legislation approved by the Senate Elections Committee requires all campaign commercials, literature and similar materials to include the names of the three largest contributors. Sen. Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale, said it’s unacceptable that people can spend large amounts of money to influence elections and remain hidden.

On paper, the vote for SB 1403 was unanimous. But several GOP legislators, after hearing from lobbyists, said they fear the measure creates unnecessary hurdles.

And Sen. Kimberly Yee, R-Phoenix, openly worried requiring people to get out from behind the committees they create to affect elections might chill their First Amendment rights to speak freely.

Long time political talk show host John C. Scott was let go at KVOI radio station (AM 1030 on the dial) on December 17, 2013 but is re-surfacing today at KVET AM 1210, from 3 to 5 p.m. John C. Scott and his producer son Mark Ulm advertise their show as the "longest running political talk show in Tucson." He has broadcast his show from Washington, D.C., China, and Israel.

According to John Schuster at the Weekly: "This will the be the fifth local AM frequency where Scott has broadcast his show. Since starting the talk-show portion of his radio career in 1989, Scott has been on KTUC 1400, KTKT 990, KJLL (now KWFM) 1330 and KVOI." That's a long, dedicated career in radio.

Listen weekdays Monday to Friday, 3 to 5 p.m. He interviews mostly politicians, political candidates, journalists, and business leaders in Tucson and Arizona, and covers many community events.

Today's guests will be John McCain, Fred DuVal, Andy Tobin, Terry Goddard, Glenn Hamer, and Mark B. Evans, according to his Facebook page.

Brewer herself is still considered a potential gubernatorial candidate. She is expected to announce in February whether she'll challenge the state's term-limit laws. Arizona law permits statewide-elected officials to serve only two consecutive terms. Article 5, Section 1 of the Arizona Constitution states, â€œNo member of the executive department after serving the maximum number of terms, which shall include any part of a term served, may serve in the same office until out of office for no less than one full term."

But Brewer and private attorney Joe Kanefield, a friend of Brewer's, have said there is "ambiguity" in that passage, saying the legal question centers on the definition of "term." Kanefield has said drafters were referring to a governor who was elected to a term and not a governor who inherited the office by succession. Brewer was not elected to the office in 2009, but ascended to the seat when then-Gov. Janet Napolitano resigned her seat to join President Barack Obama's Cabinet.

There are twelve days left in February. So what's it going to be, Guv, yes or no? Time to announce.

Tim Steller of the Arizona Daily Star is writing the most recent iteration of the Political Notebook that Rhonda Bodfield and Daniel Scarpinato (now with the RNCC) before her used to write. God, I hated the Political Notebook!

Anyway, Timmeh takes issue with Blog for Arizona's Pamela Powers Hannley for taking issue with a recent column of his, correctly pointing out that Rep. Ethan Orr (R-Tucson) only nurtures the appearance of being a moderate but votes with his GOP caucus routinely.

I would make the point that the occasional departure vote does not make Orr a "moderate" or a RINO, any more than a Democrat casting the occasional departure vote makes him or her a Teabagger or a DINO. It is a voting record taken as a whole that matters.

Today's Steller column wastes everyone's time focusing on Facebook comments about his previous column with which Pamela Powers Hannley took issue. Yeah, that's not news. Too many political reporters are fixated with social media like Twitter and Facebook. It is not news.

Our lawless legislature continues to demonstrate its contempt for the citizens of Arizona and their constitutional right to refer an act of the legislature to the voters to decide in a citizens referendum ("citizens veto"). The larger context here is its utter contempt for democracy and the right to vote.

More than 140,000 Arizonans braved the heat of an Arizona summer to circulate and sign petitions to refer HB 2305, the GOP Voter Suppression Act, to the ballot in November to let the people decide on what the legislature enacted as a "strike everything" amendment in the dead of night when no one was watching. There was no public notice, and no public hearing before a committee.

(If you want to outlaw something in the Arizona Constitution, let's start with the "strike everything" amendment. All bills should have to be filed, noticed for public hearing, and proceed through "regular order" of committee hearings and floor amendments.)

You have all heard by now about last week's GOP dirty tricks by the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, setting up fake mirror web sites for Democratic candidates. If it's the NRCC, that means the Arizona Daily Star's former political reporter hack and all-around prick Daniel Scarpinato is involved. In fact, the Star gave "The Scarp" gratuitous copy in its reporting on this story. GOP fundraising websites touting Democrats called unethical:

A move by the National Republican Congressional Campaign has local Democrats seeing red over a set of new websites that appear to tout Democrat candidates.

The Republican political committee has created mini-websites for U.S. Reps. Ron Barber, Ann Kirkpatrick and Kyrsten Sinema touting their accomplishments and asking for donations.

However, those pulling out their checkbooks with the intent of backing the incumbent Democrats will actually be giving their hard-earned dollars to Republicans.

The tactic isn’t isolated to Arizona, either. The NRCC has created at least a dozen websites in other states similarly targeting other Democrats running for office.

Campaign staffers are calling the slick, one-page websites with their high-resolution photographs of the candidates a cheap political play, designed with only one goal in mind: to trick voters into giving money to Republicans.

NRCC national press secretary Daniel Scarpinato is proud of the mini-websites, saying voters can get information from the Republican-backed websites that is not readily available on the candidates’ sites.

"Tucson’s poverty rates remained among the nation’s highest last year, with one in five living below the poverty threshold. Although Pima County’s poverty rate held steady in 2012 at 20 percent, the poverty rate among children was 29 percent. Many elderly, veterans, and single mothers in Pima County are struggling each and every day to survive; even while working one, two, sometimes three jobs. They just might be your neighbor, or a family member. How does one become part of the ‘working poor’? Who is doing what to help? Is it working? How does one escape poverty? Talking won’t solve the problem but perhaps by bringing people and ideas together we can move the needle towards sustained, positive change.

Neal Conan, award-winning journalist, producer, and former host of NPR’s Talk of the Nation will moderate the first Community Interactive: POVERTY :The Working Poor. Joining him will be a panel of educators, social service professionals, and others working every day to help people in need. POVERTY: The Working Poor event will be free to the public. The community is encouraged to participate and submit questions prior to the event at communityinteractive@azpm.org, on azpm’s facebook page or facebook.com/CFSAZ.

Select questions will be presented at the live event for discussion. Community Interactive – POVERTY: The Working Poor event will be streamed live at azpm.org, and available on demand and broadcast on WORLD on Wednesday, February 19 at 9:30 p.m. and on the UA Channel on Thursday, February 20 at 8 p.m. AZPM will feature the issue on news programming including, AZ Illustrated on PBS 6 and on NPR 89.1. The series is produced in partnership by Arizona Public Media and the Community Foundation of Southern Arizona, with support from COX Communications and the Arizona Daily Star."

Panelists include:

Patti Caldwell, executive director of Tucson’s Our Family Services

Molly Castelazo, founder and president of Castelazo Content in Phoenix

Clarice Clash, principal of Tucson High Magnet School

Herminia Cubillos, executive director of Tucson’s JobPath

Ian Galloway, senior research associate of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Lane Kenworthy, professor of sociology and political science at the University of Arizona

Michael McDonald, executive director of the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona

John Pedicone, former superintendent of Tucson Unified and Flowing Wells school districts.

During and right after law school, I worked at legal aid clinics to assist the poor and working poor (the gap group) with their legal rights. Tucson is a low wage town and this is still an important issue for the thousands of people in need here.

It was like a sudden death attack on January 31, 2014 when Gannett Publishing shut down the online Tucsoncitizen.com. There was no warning to our paid Administrator /Sports Editor Anthony Gimino or us twenty-some bloggers/citizen journalists. It just happened and all we got was a curt email from Jessie Menard at Gannett, with a "thank you for your participation" sentence. But we had been on “hospice care” for several months with frustrating interference from the RSS Feed, misdirecting or blocking access to the site. Complaints to Gannett were not listened to, even from our Administrator, and there was little or no tech support.

I had been one of the earliest bloggers at that alternative news source, starting up on June 18, 2009, since I had been a “My Tucson” guest columnist in 2008 for the print newspaper. The Tucson Citizen newspaper ceased publication on May 16, 2009, laying off an entire newsroom of 65 reporters and editors.

From June 2009 to January 2014 I have written over 1550 blog posts, which were “exported” to me via email from Gannett after the shut down, for me to download (somehow) to a Wordpress file, within a month. I’m not even computer savvy enough to know how to do that.

After the shut down, numerous articles were written about the demise (with some praise for me):

and a discussion on Bill Buckmaster’s radio show (also a Tucsoncitizen.com contributor ) on February 7, 2014, with Mark B. Evans and Dylan Smith, aforementioned.

Farewell Tucsoncitizen.com. It was a fun and rewarding experience for over four and a half years, to be able to write with passion about a diverse number of community topics and events. Many citizen journalists joined us and left, many stayed over this entire period of time. I’ll miss reading their stories and contributions, and wish that Gannett had chosen to retain some of these posts online. I liked to read Ernie McCray’s reflections “From the Soul”, Karyn Zoldan’s passionate “Tucson Tails” alerts about animals/pets, and of course Anthony Gimino’s accurate reporting about the Arizona Wildcats. Archives of earlier Tucson Citizen newspaper articles are online right now.

As for me, I’ve decided to join the “good guys (and gals)” here at the progressive blogsite Blog for Arizona. Founder/attorney Michael Bryan “made me an offer I couldn’t refuse”. I’ll be continuing to follow the upcoming political campaigns and elections of 2014, and write about community events and groups. So I will still report on “our sense of group togetherness and community”, which is what I started up at the Tucsoncitizen.com as “Carolyn’s Community”. Blog for Arizona here I come!

The "meth lab of democracy," the far-right Tea-Publican controlled Arizona legislature, feels free to engage in their batshit crazy legislation because: (1) the Arizona political media does not shine a bright light on the crazy shit they are doing and call them out for it, and (2) there is no organized public opposition to publicly shame them for doing it.

The citizens of Arizona have been beaten down for so long by the far-right that many citizens are apothetic and have abandoned hope. Which is exactly what the forces of evil want. As Edmund Burke warned, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

So where are the religious and civic leaders of Arizona willing to stand up to the intellectually bankrupt and morally depraved "meth lab of democracy" far-right Tea-Publican controlled Arizona legislature? I have explained why Arizona needs a 'Moral Mondays' movement. This requires the moral suasion of religious leaders and civic leaders. Why do you continue to sit on the sidelines in comfortable complacency and surrender to your apathy? Stand up and fight for justice and what is morally right!

There was a lot of hand-wringing among progressives/secular types before, during, and after “Science Guy” Bill Nye’s debate with Creation Museum founder Ken Ham on Tuesday night, which was held at the aforementioned “museum” in Kentucky. There is certainly a good argument for avoiding such debates entirely, as Richard Dawkins does. Eschewing them is probably a wise general rule for proponents of evolution since the debate format gives undeserved credibility to evidence-free assertions like Creationism. Also, debates are too often focused on performance over substance and “winners” and “losers”. For example, Mitt Romney “won” his first Presidential debate by boldly lying about his positions and catching President Obama off-guard. But, having watched it, I’m glad that Nye took the risk with this particular debate.

In analyzing the Religious Bigotry bills approved in the House Government Committee earlier this week, I pointed out that:

The Arizona legislature has regularly refused to amend the state civil rights act to extend employment non-discrimination and non-discrimination in public accommodations and public housing to gays and lesbians since 1996. Since there is no cause of action under either the state or federal civil rights acts for gays as a protected class, this bill is a proactive right to discrimination.

A bill to amend the Arizona Civil Rights Act to add non-discrimination against gays and lesbians (and also transgenders) has been filed every year since 1996, to the best of my recollection, and this year is no exception.

Democrats have once again filed the state version of the Employment Nondiscrimination Act (ENDA), SB 1443 (.pdf), which would amend the Arizona Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of "gender, gender identity or expression, and sexual orientation."

Tea-Publicans in Congress were tripping all over themselves to get to a microphone on Tuesday to trumpet a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that the conservative media entertainment complex, and its enablers in the corporate "lamestream" media either did not read or purposefully misrepresented with headlines like this in the Washington Post: CBO: Health law to mean 2 million fewer workers.

The [Washington Post’s "Fact Checker"] Glenn Kessler today published a fact-checking post breaking some news: No, he wrote, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) never, ever reported that Obamacare would somehow or other kill more than 2 million U.S. jobs.

Okay, to say that Kessler broke this news is a rhetorical exaggeration to highlight the point that many-o-many media outlets misconstrued the CBO findings. For a while this morning, the Internet was hopping with job-killing hype, when in fact the truth was vastly different. Obamacare’s impact, the CBO concluded, would lessen the supply of labor by encouraging certain folks not to work: “The estimated reduction stems almost entirely from a net decline in the amount of labor that workers choose to supply, rather than from a net drop in businesses’ demand for labor, so it will appear almost entirely as a reduction in labor force participation and in hours worked. . . .”

For someone approaching retirement, notes Kessler, Obamacare could well mean that they needn’t hold onto a bad job just to keep health insurance. That’s a far different dynamic from job-killing.

Humans come with a built-in ability to disregard or disbelieve facts because they’ve been presented by people with whom we disagree philosophically, as if anything that contradicts our preconceived notions of a person or situation or issue cannot be true.

The media used to fight such notions. Now, some of us encourage it.

If there is a danger in the media these days it is not that we are unfair, it’s that rather than challenge a reader’s or viewer’s willful ignorance we embolden it. We treat the news, which changes daily, like a religion, which is based on longstanding consistent unshakeable beliefs.

* * *

Our problem isn’t fairness.

Our problem is that too many people in the media are allowing, even urging, audiences to turn a blind eye to unpleasant facts.

The Arizona Daily Star's creative headline writer strikes again today. The headline in the Star reads Bill enhancing religious defense advances in Arizona Legislature. That's some spin there. These bills are about giving religious bigots a "get out of jail free" card to discriminate against anyone with whom they disagree supposedly based upon their "sincerely held religious beliefs" -- the new code word for "haters gotta hate."

[A] House panel voted 5-2 Tuesday to give individuals and the businesses they own more rights to refuse to provide services based on their religious beliefs.

The vote by the Government Committee came despite comments from several individuals that the measure would allow anyone to claim a “sincerely held” religious belief as an defense in discrimination lawsuits.

“This bill allows anyone who should normally comply with state or local laws that are neutral to claim that those laws burden their religious beliefs,” said Rep. Martin Quezada, D-Phoenix.

But Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, sponsor of HB 2153, said it protects business owners from being forced to do anything that would violate their faith, and Farnsworth lashed out at foes of the legislation for being intolerant of the religious views of others.

“This is pretty remarkable and ironic the screaming and yelling about tolerance apparently flows only one way,” he said. “They want the (religious) tolerance simply to be I'm going to tolerate their opinion and my opinion counts for nothing.”

To be a liberal in America is to be acutely aware of the gaping double standard that exists with regard to the expectations placed on you versus those put on conservatives. The disparity is so enormous that I doubt even the most dimwitted “both sides do it!” centrist pundits can deny it to themselves. Liberals are expected to argue politely and rationally, have our facts perfectly in order, and maintain a calm and pleasant demeanor at all times no matter what mendacious, hateful nonsense the other side is flinging at us. No concomitant expectation exists for conservatives. They are free to behave as poorly as they want and take whatever liberties with the truth they’d like, knowing that “both sides” will be blamed, which lets conservatives escape accountability and encourages them to see how much farther they can push the envelope.

The GOP has long practiced the political tactic of "decapitation" -- a strategy of taking out the other party's top leadership. Former Democratic House Speaker Tom Foley (D-WA) lost his seat in the Gingrich Revolution in the 1994 election. Former Democratic Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle lost his seat in 2004.

ForAmerica announced Tuesday that it's pouring six-figures into its "Dump The Leadership" campaign.

It probably won't come as a surprise that the man behind the group is none other than L. Brent Bozell III, the right-wing flamethrower who's proven himself plenty willing to take on the GOP establishment.

After Paul Ryan hashed out a bipartisan budget deal late last year, Bozell predicted that the conservative base would "stampede away from a party that has lost its principles and bearings.”

"Time and again, year after year, the Republican leadership in the House and Senate has come to grassroots conservatives, and Tea Party supporters pleading for our money, our volunteers, our time, our energy and our votes," Bozell told CNN in a statement.

The Arizona Republic, formerly known as The Arizona Republican, the media arm of the Republican Party establishment in Arizona (namely Senator John McCain, see the pushback to the Arizona Republican Party's crazy base censure of McCain on Sunday, Arizona GOP censure riles McCain backers), published a schizophrenic editorial opinion on Sunday extolling the Tea-Publican House "principles" on immigration reform released last week. A step to the middle:

There was a national sigh of relief when the House Republicans released their principles for immigration reform last week. Their plan creates space for genuine debate that could lead to finally reforming fatally flawed immigration policies. The biggest divide is over what to do about 11 million undocumented people. The House principles are a welcome step toward the middle.

In calling for [permanent] legal residency and citizenship [only] for young people who were brought into the country illegally as children, House Republicans have recognized what the nation has long understood: You don’t punish children for the actions of their parents.

In calling for legalization for the larger undocumented population, House Republicans have moved away from the more extremist factions of their caucus who denounce anything short of deportation as “amnesty.”

They now have to find accommodation with Democrats who denounce anything short of a path to citizenship as a sellout.

A few highlights from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's "Bridgegate" statement at his press conference on January 9, 2014. Full transcript:

Well, let me tell you, everybody, I was blindsided yesterday morning. I was done with my workout yesterday morning and got a call from my communications director at about 8:50, 8:55, informing me of this story that had just broken on the Bergen Record website. That was the first time I knew about this. That was the first time I had seen any of the documents that were revealed yesterday.

[T]the emails that I saw for the first time yesterday morning, when they broken in I believe the Bergen Record story, proved that that was a lie. There's no justification for that behavior. There's no justification for ever lying to a governor or a person in authority in this government. And as a result, I've terminated Bridget's employment immediately this morning.

And I'll say one last thing, just so we're really clear. I had no knowledge or involvement in this issue, in its planning or it execution, and I am stunned by the abject stupidity that was shown here. Regardless of what the facts ultimately uncover, this was handled in a callous and indifferent way, and it is not the way this administration has conducted itself over the last four years and not the way it will conduct itself over the next four.

This is what is known as the "Sgt. Schultz defense," named after the Hogan's Heroes character Master Sgt. Hans Schultz, who had a recurring line in the show of "I see nothing!" or "I know nothing!"

In the conservative media entertainment complex, facts simply do not matter. They create a GOPropaganda talking point, often by pulling it out of their rearend, and they stick to it even when all the fact-checkers say they are wrong. See above: facts simply do not matter.

This is how the "big lie" technique of propaganda works. Repeat a lie often enough, and enough of the low information rubes who have heard it repeated often enough on hate radio and FAUX News will start to believe it as fact. "Yeah, I heard that somewhere." It is the business model of the conservative media entertainment complex.

The latest hyperventilating hysteria manufactured by the GOPropagandists of the conservative media entertainment complex is that President Obama is a "dictator" and a "tyrant" because he occasionally issues an executive order to accomplish some policy goal. In the conservative alternate reality, only policies approved by Tea-Publicans in Congress, and endorsed by their conservative media entertainment complex talking heads should ever become law, because only they are entitled to govern. Some of the more extreme Tea-Publicans have even suggested that President Obama should be impeached for issuing executive orders.

In that case, all prior U.S. presidents, excluding William Henry Harrison who fell ill and died only a month into office, should have been impeached as well. The fact is, President Obama has issued fewer executive orders than any of his predecessors.

So the "editorial board" of The Arizona Republic, formerly known as The Arizona Republican, and the mouthpiece of the establishment Republican Party in Arizona, editorializes today that it is all for House Judiciary Committee Chairman "Fast Eddie" Farnsworth's (R-Gilbert) bill, HB 2196 (.pdf), to repeal the GOP Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305, and to deny you, the citizens of Arizona, your constitutional right to vote on a citizens referred referendum.

More than 100,000 Arizona citizens signed the petitions for a "citizens veto" of the GOP Voter Suppression Act, exercising their constitutional right under the Arizona Constitution to vote to veto the legislature's anti-democratic measure.

This opinion clearly is not shared by everyone at the Republic. Columnist Laurie Roberts called the Republican legislature's attempt to repeal a measure referred to the ballot for a "citizens veto" as "skullduggery." Are legislators plotting end run around voters in election-law referendum? Columnist E.J. Montini said this action shows "exactly how much the Republicans who control the Legislature resent Arizona voters." Will lawmakers vote to deny your vote? Columnist Linda Valdez has not written an opinion on the subject recenty, but in the past has opposed the GOP Voter Suppression Act.

The party faithful of the Arizona Democratic and Republican Parties gathered on Saturday, January 25, 2014 in Maricopa County for their respective State Committee Meetings. State law requires official political parties to meet quarterly. Precinct committee people, state and county party leaders, elected officials, and candidates gather to discuss strategy, issues, money, and candidates.

The outcomes of those two meetings show the STARK differences between Arizona's two major political parties. (Even where the two parties met shows their ideological differences. Democrats met in a public high school; Republicans met in a church.)

At the Arizona Democratic Party's (ADP) State Committee Meeting, the ADP continued to show its progressive side, unanimously endorsing a resolution against fracking. With only two dissenting votes, ADP also endorsed a resolution supporting the marijuana legalization initiative, Safer Arizona, which was endorsed by ADP's Progressive Caucus at the November 2013 State Committee Meeting. (BTW, if you support legalization, help them out by signing and circulating petitions and/or donating money.)

A resolution barring the ADP from accepting funds from members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was endorsed by the ADP's progressive caucus on Saturday, as was the fracking resolution. When proposed to the entire State Committee, it was tabled.

This has been some week in the Arizona GOP's war on democracy, hasn't it?

On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman "Fast Eddie" Farnsworth's (R-Gilbert) bill, HB 2196 (.pdf), to repeal the GOP Voter Suppression Act, HB 2305, and to deny the citizens of Arizona their constitutional right to vote on a citizens referred referendum, was pulled after angry citizens and the media showed up at the hearing. More than 100,000 Arizonans signed the petitions for a "citizens veto" of the GOP Voter Suppression Act, exercising their constitutional right under the Arizona Constitution to vote to veto the legislature's anti-democratic measure. No matter.

The Arizona GOP's plan is to repeal HB 2305, and to pass the separate provisions for voter suppression in the bill as separate bills to make another citizens referendum virtually impossible, and to get their way by "skullduggery," as Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts called it. Are legislators plotting end run around voters in election-law referendum?" "Fast Eddie" promises to bring his bill back up for a hearing, possibly as early as this week.

On Friday, the Arizona GOP was in U.S. District Court arguing to a three judge panel of federal judges that you, the voters of Arizona, by enacting a citizens referred initiative to create the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC), Prop. 106 (2000), violated their federal constitutional right to gerrymander congressional districts in favor of GOP candidates. (Where are the Neo-Confederate "states' rights" federal "guvmint" haters now?) As I explained, their legal argument is entirely without merit. Arizona Legislature v. the AIRC court hearing this Friday. This is one of those frivolous "junk lawsuits" you hear about.

Yesterday, the Judiciary Committee of the Arizona House of Representatives was scheduled to discuss repealing last year’s omnibus voter suppression bill (HB2305). Since thousands of Arizona citizens had signed petitions to stop implementation of HB2305 and put voter suppression on the 2014 ballot, sneaky legislators had devised a plan to do an end-run around voters by repealing the destined-to-fail-at-the-polls bill and replace it with several individual voter suppression bills. (After all, we can’t let citizens decide issues as important as who gets to vote or how measures are put on the ballot.)

Thanks to a widely distributed press release from the Protect Your Right to Vote Committee, news of Republican legislators’ Voter Suppression Plan B flew out across the blogosphere on Wednesday, resulting in much citizen– and news media– interest.

Overnight, hundreds of concerned Arizona voters called and wrote to members of the committee urging them to respect the will of the voters and let them have their say on HB2305 in November. Dozens of people showed up to speak at the hearing as well as three television news crews. Judiciary Chairman Eddie Farnsworth then told the amassed crowd that he was holding his repeal bill (HB2196). He has since rescheduled the hearing on his bill for next week.

Proving once again that sunshine is the best disinfectant and voter suppression is a topic best discussed in the dead of night with no witnesses, Farnsworth decided not to open discussions with TV cameras rolling and citizens watching.

It's been a long time coming, but today prosecutors charged former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell aka "Governor vaginal probe" and his wife Maureen were charged Tuesday with illegally accepting gifts, luxury vacations and large loans from a wealthy Richmond-area businessman who sought special treatment from state government. Former Va. Gov. McDonnell and wife charged in gifts case:

The two were charged with 14 felony counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, obtaining property under color of their official office and conspiring to the do the same.

They were also charged with making false statements to a federal credit union.

McDonnell was also charged with making a false statement to a financial institution, and Maureen McDonnell was charged with obstructing the investigation.

* * *

Authorities alleged that McDonnell and his wife received gifts from executive Jonnie R. Williams again and again, lodging near constant requests for money, clothes, trips, golf accessories and private plane rides.

In exchange, authorities alleged that the McDonnells worked in concert to lend the prestige of the governorship to Williams’s struggling company, a small former cigarette manufacturer that now sells dietary supplements.

I almost spit out my coffee this morning when I opened up the fishwrap newspaper this morning. The print edition headline on the front page of our sad small-town newspaper, the Arizona Daily Star, reads "Setback for AZ's voting ID effort" -- on Martin Luther King Day, no less.

A quick Google search reveals that no other newspaper publishing this Howard Fischer report used this politically biased headline. Most used "Citizen proof request rejected by federal eelction commission." The Sierra Vista Herald used "State bid to change federal election law rejected." Hell, even our sad small-town newspaper did not use this politically biased headline in its online version: Panel rejects AZ's bid to require proof of citizenship for voting. All factual headlines.

Spanish was my first language. And while I cannot compete with the august members of the Royal Spanish Academy of language in Madrid, I can tell the difference between proper Spanish and pidgin Spanglish. One would hope that respected news sources like the Associated Press and The Washington Post would have at least one person on staff who can actually read the world's second-most spoken language.

Yes, and you would think that a newspaper in the City of Tucson with a large Hispanic population, and presumably some Spanish-speaking employees, would have vetted this story for accuracy as well.

If you don’t like the way Facebook shovels advertising and promoted posts into your “news feed”, instead of the latest photos of your friends’ vacations, you’re really not going to like the new and improved Internet.

Yesterday, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) doesn’t have the power to regulate net neutrality. What does this mean for you? Internet providers like Verizon can now cut deals with corporate giants to accelerate their content, while leaving non-commercial Internet content–like those pesky independent blogs– in the dustbin of a Google search.

Net neutrality rules were issued by the FCC to prevent broadband providers from favoring some content over other content, potentially even their own. As the two-judge majority explains, “a broadband provider like Comcast might limit its end-user subscribers’ ability to access the New York Times website if it wanted to spike traffic to its own news website, or it might degrade the quality of the connection to a search website like Bing if a competitor like Google paid for prioritized access.”

Even as they struck down these rules Tuesday, the D.C. Circuit judges concede that this concern is real, writing, “broadband providers represent a threat to Internet openness and could act in ways that would ultimately inhibit the speed and extent of future broadband deployment.” The problem, however, derives from an earlier FCC decision that even advocates of net neutrality like Free Press president Craig Aaron say was a failure of FCC leadership to “ground its Open Internet rules on solid legal footing.” [Emphasis added.]

"If it's Sunday, It's John McCain." The Sunday morning bobbleheads are his base. No one else gives a damn.

The man who could not remember if he owns 8, no wait is it 9, no 10 homes, was on TeaNN (formerly CNN) on Sunday to explain why someone who made his fortune the old-fashioned way -- he married it -- voted against extending long-term unemployment benefits to the unemployed and is opposed to raising the minimum wage: Obama derangement syndrome.

Arizona's angry old man does not feel empathy and compassion for the less fortunate. Screw "Christian values" -- Fuck em! It's all about the sanctity of Senate procedures that only the Beltway media clutches their pearls over.

If Sen. John McCain really wants to help the Republicans with their "messaging" on unemployment benefits and minimum wage, he might want to start by staying off the air.

Here's Grandpa McGrumpy telling CNN's Candy Crowley that the real problem is not their cruel stance on unemployment benefits or raising the minimum wage, it's that they haven't done enough carping about that mean old Harry Reid stopping them from being able to grind the Senate to a halt with poison pills and adding an unlimited number of amendments to bills so they never see the light of day.

In the interest of full disclosure, I need to mention that I write a monthly column for The Explorer, a weekly distributed mainly in the Marana/Oro Valley/Foothills area. But seeing as how I'm criticizing the paper, it probably isn't necessary.

A few days ago, I went to the online home page of The Explorer and found the image at right among its news clips. No problem with the headline, "State Senator Al Melvin signs 'No New Taxes' pledge" or the pic of him shaking Grover Norquist's hand. But I looked at the copy below and thought, "This sounds like it's written by Melvin's PR team, not by a reporter."

Sure enough, I followed the link to the "story." It's more than a mere puff piece. I'll bet my blogger's hat it's nothing more than a copy of a Media Release Melvin sent to The Explorer, and most likely to every news outlet in the state (except maybe the Weekly, which Melvin hates).

If the Explorer thought this Media Release was newsworthy, it should have rewritten it as an objective piece stating what Melvin did -- he went to Washington D.C. and signed the "No New Taxes" pledge. The paper could include a quote from the release, that's fine. But to publish a campaign-crafted puff piece with all its self-congratulatory language as news goes against any notion of what journalism is supposed to be.

If the paper is going to publish all or part of a Media Release, at least it should be called what it is by revealing the source. Don't simply put this at the bottom:

I'm about to do a post that is similar to one I did on Democratic Diva a while back but since that site is down and Brahm Resnik of 12 News in Phoenix just tweeted that Mesa Mayor Scott Smith intends to announce his bid for the GOP gubernatorial nod in Arizona, I'm going to repeat my warning:

There was a guy by the name of Pat McCrory in North Carolina. He was the Mayor of Charlotte, a medium-sized city which had enjoyed a good bit of high tech development in recent years. McCrory was considered a centrist, and was the darling of the Chamber of Commerce and media establishment types in NC. When he ran for governor in 2012, McCrory styled himself as a keen-eyed, business focused pragmatist. At debates and endorsement interviews he swore up and down he wasn't going to indulge the tea party ideologues in the state legislature. He was all about jobs jobs jobs! When he was specifically asked about abortion at one forum, he gave a one word answer - "no" - to signing any bill involving abortion into law.

Both The Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Star rely heavily on the Washington Post for reporting and syndicated columnists. But the editors are highly selective in the reports they choose to publish. For example, neither Arizona newspaper thought it newsworthy to publish the big investigative report by Matea Gold in the Washington Post on Monday about the evil bastard Koch brothers. Hmmm, is Arizona's GOP-friendly media still protecting Sean Noble and the "Kochtopus" dark money laundering organization Center to Protect Patient Rights? Koch-backed political coalition, designed to shield donors, raised $400 million in 2012:

The political network spearheaded by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch has expanded into a far-reaching operation of unrivaled complexity, built around a maze of groups that cloaks its donors, according to an analysis of new tax returns and other documents.

The filings show that the network of politically active nonprofit groups backed by the Kochs and fellow donors in the 2012 elections financially outpaced other independent groups on the right and, on its own, matched the long-established national coalition of labor unions that serves as one of the biggest sources of support for Democrats.

The resources and the breadth of the organization make it singular in American politics: an operation conducted outside the campaign finance system, employing an array of groups aimed at stopping what its financiers view as government overreach. Members of the coalition target different constituencies but together have mounted attacks on the new health-care law, federal spending and environmental regulations.

Key players in the Koch-backed network have already begun engaging in the 2014 midterm elections, hiring new staff members to expand operations and strafing House and Senate Democrats with hard-hitting ads over their support for the Affordable Care Act.

Back in November the conservative media entertainment complex latched onto the GOPropaganda talking point that millions of Americans have had their health insurance policies "cancelled" - implying that these individuals would be left without health insurance coverage because of "ObamaCare." Their complicit partners in the "lamestream media" picked up the GOPropaganda talking point and caused a media hysteria for several weeks.

There is a big problem with using anecdotal reporting about individuals who claim to be 'victims" of "ObamaCare" to extrapolate a larger media narrative -- many of these individuals' stories were quickly debunked by serious and credible reporters who are not given to media hysteria. It turns out GOP claims that millions of Americans would lose their health insurance because of "ObamaCare" was not true (ah, but you already knew that).

[A]ccording to a new analysis, this ignores counterbalancing policies in the law. The report finds that less than 10,000 people will lose coverage coverage without an immediate and affordable replacement.

The paper, put together on behalf of ranking member Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and other the Democrats on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, takes as its starting point a recent Associated Press report that 4.7 million Americans will see their current coverage cancelled. Critics of Obamacare have used this and other reports to play conceptual games, allowing the technical “cancellation” of a plan to imply a consumer will lose all coverage entirely and be left out in the cold. But for the vast major that 4.7 million, the cancellation of a plan simply means a shift into a new and often better form of coverage. The report lays out three ways this happens.

Adam Peterson’s life is about to change. For the first time in years, he is planning to do things he could not have imagined. He intends to have surgery to remove his gallbladder, an operation he needs to avoid another trip to the emergency room. And he’s looking forward to running a marathon in mid-January along the California coast without constant anxiety about what might happen if he gets injured.

These plans are possible, says Peterson, who turned 50 this year and co-manages a financial services firm in Champaign, Ill., because of a piece of plastic the size of a credit card that arrived in the mail the other day: a health insurance card.

Peterson is among the millions of uninsured Americans who are benefiting from the Affordable Care Act, the 2010 law that launched far-reaching changes to the U.S. health-care system and is President Obama’s premier domestic achievement.

A six-part series by New York Times reporter David Kirkpatrick destroyed several myths about the September 11, 2012, attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, myths often propagated by conservative media and their allies in Congress to politicize the attack against the Obama administration.

This song is 40 years old this Christmas -- older than most of the blonde faux outrage actresses on FAUX News. Maybe that's why they have never heard "Santa Claus is a Black Man" by Akim & Teddy Vann (yeah, that's the reason). It's been years since I have heard this song.

The cover shot for Santa Claus Is A Black Man tells you everything you need to know about the song. Teddy Vann sits on a sledge, dressed as Santa, with his five year old daughter Akim. It's cute, funny and festive, and seems entirely silly - until you realise both have their fists raised in a black power salute.

Released forty years ago this Christmas, 'Santa Claus Is A Black Man' by Akim & the Teddy Vann Production Company is pure novelty: a soul funk retread of 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus', sung by a little girl to her daddy. It's festive fluff, complete with none-more-70s asides ("I can dig it" says Teddy, when he's told about the handsome, black Santa with an afro, and adds "Right on.") It's a cute Christmas song, sang by a child and for children. Which makes it easy to overlook just how pioneering that made it. This was a novelty Christmas song for black kids released in 1973, when African American children were completely left out of traditional festive imagery; it repackaged the ethos of blaxploitation music for pre-schoolers, attempting to give black children a piece of Christmas they could actually relate to. The song is a key point in the life's work of Brooklyn musician and polymath Teddy Vann, a fascinating and overlooked figure in late 20th century African American popular music.

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